LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has appealed to politicians, generals and judges to sit together for the sake of the country and build a new Pakistan.

He was addressing the inauguration ceremony of Punjab Tianjin University of Technology (PTUT) on its campus in Township through videolink from London on Friday.

The chief minister said confrontation between institutions should be addressed through reconciliation. “We should have to eliminate internal differences, opposition and baseless confrontation,” he said, adding that all institutions should work together for the betterment of the country.

He said this was not the time to shed tears over mistakes committed in the past, but lesson should be learnt from those mistakes. State institutions should work intelligently to end differences with each other.

“Respect and rights of parliament should not be violated. Supreme Court judges were respectable and they had the right to interpret the Constitution,” he said, adding that the armed forces were working for national defence and their services towards eliminating terrorism were unforgettable.

Shahbaz said that technology-based education was the need of the hour and would change the destiny of the nation. He said they had achieved a milestone by establishing this technology university. He thanked the Chinese government, university syndicate, educational experts of Punjab and his team members who worked hard for setting up of PTUT.

He claimed that the Punjab government had taken unprecedented steps during the last 10 years for improving the education sector and establishment of PTUT was a part of those efforts. Establishment of modern educational institutions was an important development towards transforming Pakistan according to the ideals of Iqbal and Jinnah.

Chinese Consul General in Lahore Long Dingbin, acting Vice Chancellor Dr Fazal Ahmad and Project Director Mufti Hashim also addressed the gathering. Provincial ministers Sheikh Allauddin and Rana Mashhood Ahmad, Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Dr Umar Saif, the chief secretary, provincial secretaries and heads of Chinese institutions also attended the meeting. Later, visitors were presented with shields and souvenirs.

The PTUT has been set up at a temporary campus in Township, while a permanent campus would be constructed on Raiwind Road. An ordinance for the PTUT had been promulgated on Nov 17, 2017. The campus has been established with Rs96 million, whereas a request for the release of Rs995 million has been approved for the varsity’s first year of operation.

The university session started on March 19.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2018